


Two boys

by germfreeAdolescent



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Horror, Paranoia, Self-Harm, more violent than I'd intended horror, poor depictions of mental illness in pre teens, violent horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-25 14:59:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13837197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/germfreeAdolescent/pseuds/germfreeAdolescent
Summary: Too young for jail Dean is sent along with other delinquent boys from the city to Sonny’s juvenile detention centre, but all is not as it seems and Dean finds himself on a case like nothing his hunter upbringing could ever have prepared him for.A kid fic AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know nothing about mental illness so be warned, this is all from personal or televised experiences combined with weak accumulations of various plots and ideas taken from many way too similar sounding films and books I’ve been indulging in.  
> To my mind what really matters is the idea of two kids discovering each other so that's what I've focussed on in this short story. I hope nothing is offensive but I know much is stolen and obviously so. Perhaps I will list the original works of influence at the end. The important ones at least.  
> Dean is paranoid schizophrenic (be warned!!) and Cas is his equal and opposite reflection. Self harm happens. John's poor parenting happens. I don't dwell on these parts but they are there so please be warned if this triggers you in any way xx  
> No one dies and no one is suicidal (to my mind)  
> it will be a happy ending.

4am,   
it’s the best time.  
A moment between shifts, when the night owls have retreated yet the dawn is yet to happen.

Dean stayed awake especially for this time, to revel in its peacefulness, secretly, always secretly because the monsters… There were always monsters. Especially here, in fact here was the epicentre, the heart of the mother of all demon operations.

Monsters were just part of his life of course. He was a hunter and being neck deep in monsters came with the territory. But everyone needed time out, a moment to let off steam and right now this was his. When he could drive in the empty spaces between dangers like he had not a care in the world, a necessary delusion when he’d been waiting maybe two months now for f’in back up.  
A whole life time when you’re ten and a half years old. 

Dean hated this mission with a passion. It was long and it was boring and, and he was getting scared. Something a hunter never did, something he should never do.

He sighed deeply as he redirected his focus back to his beautiful car, rolling her along another long stretch of perfect inky black highway under the careful weight of his finger. Whiling away the hours of yet another long and lonely night…  
It was a nice car, a classic his dad had said and, in his head, the smooth rumble of her fiery engine soothed him as she sped far, far from here.  
“Not much longer now” He whispered imagining himself on some distant highway, speeding toward comfort and family and…

A clamour outside had him scrambling back into the safety of his bunker where he curled himself tight against the far wall behind curtains of sheets and blankets.

The demons were back. And this time he was sure they had found him…  
But no, as he peeked open an eye he saw by the shuffle of their feet that they were already occupied. They’d caught someone else, a fighter, someone strong enough to defy their superior strength even while under the influence of their terrible poisons…

Curiosity got the better of him and Dean shifted, just a little, to see. Hoped, just a little that it was his father… It wasn’t; it was another boy. A boy much like himself who despite being hampered with every restraint the demons had in their terrible arsenal, was still giving his captors hell… 

Dean gasped as he watched the drama unfold.

 

“Give him another shot!” The demons bickered as they wrestled with their victim.  
“He’s already had the recommended dose. Couldn’t you restrain him further?”  
“He’s hysterical! He’ll hurt himself!”  
“Or us! Just give it him already”  
“Fine. I’ll up his dose”  
“Come on! We’re losing here!”

 

Dean watched transfixed as four demons struggled. The fifth demon, Alistair and possibly the worst, administered another hit of his terrible poison.   
The kicking slowed.   
The struggle abated and the boy, the boy became limp in his captor’s arms. Dean’s hope vanished too. Of course, it had been impossible for one kid against so many but, but the kid had seemed superhumanly strong… like superman… or perhaps more like another monster. Something else Dean would have to fear.

The demons parted, panting heavily with relief as they lowered their victim down. It took a full minute for them to recover themselves enough to start their gloat.

 

“Got us a real little bruiser here”  
“It’s all that sugar they keep feeding them I swear. Sugar and e-numbers, the lot of it’s no good”  
“Huh? Twinkie or two never did that for me!”  
“Pfft, the day you eat a whole fuckin’ Twinkie ya skinny little…”  
“Ruby!” Sonny, the leader barked “Watch your mouth!”

“Sorry! Sorry. Just kind ‘a slipped out” Ruby grumbled pushing her loose hair back into some form of order “Lil tykes are all asleep anyway”

“Well, watch it okay? Last thing we need is them repeating that sort of thing. Anyway, he seems good now” Sonny said poking the kid once more to make sure he was truly out “So I’d better get back to the officers that brought him in”

“Sure, we can finish up here” Ruby said having fully restored her composure.

“Well, Shout if he gives you anymore trouble” 

“I think we can handle it”

“Thanks” Sonny replied absently checking over the room and his associates one more time, a habit borne of incessant vigilance that had kept this huge operation clear of hunters so far “Doctor, would you mind accompanying me?”

 

Doctor Alister! Dean had lost sight of him! His blood froze cold and sharp in his veins as he searched every shadow in the dark dorm…

“Dean Winchester” Alistair cooed from the corner where he lurked “Still refusing to sleep in a bed I see? Luckily I know just the sedative that would help with that…”

Dean scrambled back, pushing himself against flat against the wall again and automatically started to chant the exorcism he knew by heart in its original and most powerful Latin form. 

“Leave him. He just needs time” Sonny said, his tone now too impatient “I’ve already got to explain what we’ve given this new charge, I don’t need them thinking we manage every problem via artificial means”

Alister’s smile wilted but his hard eyes remained fixed on Dean’s hide out right up till he turned on his heel to leave. Sonny followed him out, a brief glance to the three remaining demons he was leaving in charge as he went.

“Well, well, well, long time no see Dean’o” Ruby sang now that her superiors were gone “Why don’t you come on out and tell us what you do under there all day?” 

Dean felt paralysed, a moments hope and he’d turned sloppy revealing his secret hideout to enemies. Now he only had his warding and his weapons to protect himself. Weapons his hands felt numb to wield.

“Come on out” Ruby cooed as if sensing his vulnerability “We won’t bite” she smiled stepping boldly closer, stooping a little to see better “We just want to talk, come out, come out from under there boy”

Dean’s tongue froze in his mouth, somehow her powers had infiltrated all his safe guards, he was powerless… powerless and trapped…

“Ruby!” Meg hissed “A little help!”

The boy was lashing out again, kicking and fighting for all he was worth. Meg and Bella were already straddling the bed in their effort to hold him down.

“How the fuck?” Ruby spat returning fast to help “The lil’ shit should be out cold!”

“He is!” Meg gasped between the boys wildly aimed blows “He’s like, sleep fighting or something!”

Dean found his words and began chanting them over and over in fast succession till that was all that he could hear and he was wrapped completely in their protective pulse.

Outside the demons squabbled but did not dare come close again. He was safe here, safe! and It wouldn’t be long now, not long till back up found him.


	2. Chapter 2

When Dean next peeked open his eyes it was to the familiar sounds of the other kids stirring, the stupid ones who wandered oblivious to the dangers surrounding them. They ignored Dean in his bunker. Ignored the latest victim passed out in their midst (these things were all too common now) and shuffled out eager to be fattened and lied to by their captors.  
Eager to meet their ends as obliviously and efficiently as possible.

Most days Dean huffed at their stupidity but today he didn’t stir, not until midday almost when his hunger wouldn’t let him rest any more. He needed to make a supply run, a risky but necessary business and one that he’d been putting off… He wished he hadn’t, not after last night and how close he’d come to… to… But it was daylight now. And the demons and all their cohorts were probably returned to their various stations and cupboard sized offices around the campus, it was probably safe…

He needed to go too. He’d gone sometime in the night without realising and now needed to wash and change. He still had clothes left in his duffle which he grabbed along with his empty canister, it was now, or never…   
He hovered over the protective wards drawn carefully into the dust. They would need strengthening. He counted off the list of monsters he knew would be waiting outside and recited how he would kill each of them. His words became a mantra, in his mantra he found his courage.   
Dean armed himself with his secret demon blade and crept silently out, keeping to the shadows. There were too many for one hunter to take so he had to keep off of their radar as much as he could. Just concentrating on staying alive and gathering intelligence was enough for now and it would prove vitally important for when back up eventually came.

Outside of his bunker nothing seemed to change.   
Kids stood gawping or drifting one way or the other seemingly satisfied with their dull routines like, all they ever needed was their basic needs to be met for them to forget whatever it was that they had been rebelling over. They were all delinquents here. Trouble makers of the worst sort; the ones society would rather forget which made them easy pickings for ‘Sonny’s home’ to seize.   
These demons were doing the world a service taking them in and receiving a steady supply of victims in return. A roof, some drugs and the familiar drone of TV was all it took to control them too.  
The TV which was always on, hypnotising with its continual message to be grateful as there was always worse beyond. It streamed bad news continuously. Today’s story was about dissatisfaction abroad and how a whole bunch of refugees had lost their lives for the chance to sample just a little of what this unappreciative nation had.   
Their overcrowded boat had capsized just miles from shore. Their shore in fact. Whole were families lost. Dean imagined seeing it happen from the safety of the boardwalk while shoppers carried on in the fancy boutiques on the water front oblivious as always. 

“Shame” Meg muttered as she stopped working to listen a while “But, you know, I’d rather the sea took me than find out heaven wasn’t all it was cracked up to be”

“Honestly?” Ruby scolded, nearly dropping the tray of empty cups she’d been collecting as she turned to give Meg her full attention “You don’t know shit!”

A group of boys giggled but were forced to stay silent by the weight of Ruby’s glare   
“You don’t know nothing” Ruby growled

“I know this” Meg said unintimidated as she got up from where she was wiping spilt juice from the floor “ I trained for this” She said waving her dirty cloth “Got debts as long as that dingy dinghy is deep so I can get to do this”

“Humph” Ruby sighed all argument gone and Dean wondered as he slipped by if he didn’t notice a resemblance in her features or a tear sparkle on her cheek as he slipped by silently into the bathroom to freshen up with military efficiency. 

When he emerged, the news was already on a second loop. This misfortune, too large to comprehend, was already being made monotonous by dull repetition. Dean payed no it minds as he made his way determinedly toward the kitchen for his next port of call.  
The kitchen; dangerous as it was the hub of most if not all activity here. Dangerous too as it was occupied by some of the worst monsters alive to Dean’s knowledge, witch’s.  
Dean hated them with a passion, they were one of the only supernatural threats that chose not to be human… especially here working along-side demons, they chose to be evil. At any other time he would love to see them ended but right now he had lay low and he had to eat.   
He tiptoed in ducking behind groups of other kids and grabbed anything he could. Clean stuff mostly, stuff that they couldn’t taint and definitely nothing they had cooked but he couldn’t afford to be too fussy. He snatched what he could carry and made his way back directly to the safety of his bunker. 

 

In all his excursions took little more than thirty minutes but always they left him exhausted.  
He sat back enjoying the feeling an empty bladder and food gave him.   
When it felt too good, too good to be true he tested himself, just to make sure he wasn’t in anyway turning and retraced his warding so not to be caught out by some crafty new demon trick… None of it helped relieve the feeling that something wasn’t right though, he couldn’t place his finger on it exactly but something was a miss…

He reached for his duffel and started digging through its contents, past his beloved car, past his own home made hex bags. Past a very old but powerful piece of bone he’d found, his pen and paper scraps… till finally he found it. The small brassy, precious talisman his brother had given him. He didn’t know what it did exactly other than remind him achingly of home but as Dean held the sharp little ornament, too sharp to comfortably wear though he’d often tried, he saw through new eyes, saw that danger was closer and stronger than he’d ever have imagined. It had already penetrated his wards! He gripped his silver knife, still bloody, and twisted round in his limited space. From here he could see his car slowly rolling away and coming to a hesitant halt out in the middle of the vast open floor.

‘How?’ He wondered, panicked; how? But the culprit was clear, as well as demon strength the boy, that new one, possessed telekinetic powers. He lay there, propped up on his elbows watching Dean with sharp intense eyes as the car slowed to its stop between them.

Dean weighed his options. Clearly this kid wasn’t human so even if he wasn’t a part of the demons’ operations, even if he was just another victim like himself he was still a monster and still a threat to him. An unknown, powerful threat who right now was very much alone, still ‘perhaps’ weak from Alistair’s poison and possibly unwise to the extent of Dean’s own power… An advantage Dean wasn’t about to pass up.   
He gripped his silver knife and crawled out, lion like, prowling, past his car, shoulders hunching, past the foot of the opposite bed... Making himself huge Dean stood tall over the other boy who still watched patiently, motionless even, as Dean stepped closer, too close, and raised his blade high.

 

A cool steady inhuman stare that didn’t waver even when Dean stabbed his demon killing blade down, down on to him.

It wasn’t right, it wasn’t like anything John had said killing a monster would be, no sulphurous smoke, no unholy scream or evaporation of the corrupted vessel into an ash shroud … Dean held his breath, waiting for that promised righteous feeling to come.   
The boy’s gaze now pierced him back harder, penetrating his very soul… Dean could wait no longer this act of violence seeming more repulsive by the second for its lack of conclusion, he twisted the blade and the boy was gone… Flying from the room while Dean stood dumb, his blade rattling endlessly on the floor.   
“No” Dean gasped as it all went wrong, as the boy didn’t die or disappear but carried off the proof of his act of violence leaping over the neatly lined beds all the way to out the door and down the hall and into the arms of the demons Dean knew would to be waiting there.

Dean listened to the struggle outside distantly.

Listened as his heart beat too rapidly in his chest.   
Listened as the commotion grew, then ceased… 

He snatched up his blade and his car and escaped quickly back down into his bunker and waited for the backlash to come. Waited for his father’s scolding for not finishing the job like he should. Waited for the demons to come looking for the weapon capable of destroying monsters such as themselves and its welder in their very midst…   
He waited for it, for all the trouble to finally find him;  
but it never came.   
Silence surrounded him.  
Silence, then the familiar drone of routine activities outside till eventually the other kids returned to their beds, all perfectly oblivious and wonderfully tired as the lights were turned out to signal the end to another day.   
Another day of imprisonment. Another day alone but now with the added dread that he may have done something really wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (italics are used for the rare moment that isn't from Dean's point of view in this chap)

Still Dean waited long into the night and as he waited he wondered how it was that yet again he was avoiding detection?   
Surely it had been close this time? Surely?   
He didn’t know if he had it in him to carry this on much longer… 

He took hold of baby, lifting her reverently to check carefully over for scratches or other more significant harm. She was fine, a polish of her roof and hood assured him she was fine. Perhaps he’d over reacted? No, it was fact that you didn’t mess with anothers car, especially not a classic like this. That was never justifiable.   
The tense quietness of night ate into him.  
He checked baby over again. Scrutinized like he needed to find something, maybe the light of day would reveal more giving something to be sore over but right now there was nothing but a burning itch to drive. He set her down carefully. She’d survived worse, they both had and come out fine. Perhaps they’d go further tonight? Perhaps they’d try… Dean checked the dark dorm. The night air and shadowy spaces felt alive tonight, like even the shadows were hiding from the dull light emanating from the hall outside. There was no sign of that kid returning, no sign of any guard preventing an escape… maybe? The light flickered, blinking out once, and then again before returning to its full luminosity. That was sure sign of poltergeist. Who knew how many supernatural creeps the demons had aligned themselves with… no wonder he felt so watched.  
Dean decided to stay within his wards, to keep his drive to a minimum. It was too dark to tell for sure if baby was truly ok or not anyway. Best to be safe he thought as he propped his head on his duffel and rested his eyes a moment.

 

(Dean didn’t notice Sonny returning the new boy back into the bed across from his. Didn’t notice being manoeuvred more comfortably or being tucked up where he lay for the duration of that night. Fresh pillows were propped under him as well as his dirty cloths now clean returned into his bag.

“Is he right in the head?” The new kid whispered.

“He’s uh, he’s struggling with some issues” Sonny replied “But then I guess we all are one way or another, why else would we be here otherwise? Listen, this is not Dean’s first time, he’ll come round eventually. He usually does. Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer a different bed?”

“No, that’s fine he just scared me a bit. I think he was more scared”

“I suspect he was”

“I think we’ll be fine now” 

“That’s very kind of you. Well good night, and remember Ruby is just down the hall if anything should occur”

“Thank you. Goodnight sir”

“Night Castiel”

 

Night in a foreign bed is never easy and Castiel, often, found himself just waiting for the dawn. There was a fait noise coming from under Dean’s bed, humming maybe. He remembered Dean had toys stashed under there, something he’d already been told wasn’t allowed and decided as the first pale rays of sun lit the horizon that this was as good a time as any to start asking questions)

 

“Pst”  
“Pst!”

Dean woke to the sound of something hitting the floor close to his head.  
He was still trapped, still here in his bunker only now with skittle like sweets raining down around him… He hadn’t had sweets since he’d been detained here, longer… he must be dreaming.

“Hey!” a distant voice said impatiently as another sweet was directed at Dean’s head “Hey Dean! I know you’re awake. What’re you doing?”

Dean woke fully with a start. It was that new kid, he was back unharmed and undeterred after yesterday’s incident… and somehow, he knew Dean’s name?

“What’s all that stuff?” The kid asked still watching with a scary intensity “I was told no toys so how come you get to keep…”

Dean bristled, toys? Toys! “Why aren’t you dead? I stabbed you? You really should be dead!”

The boy looked mystified “You’d have to hit me a lot harder than that” 

Dean swallowed, he was dealing with a monster then “What are you?” He asked, “and who’s side are you on?” 

“Side?” 

“Yes side” Dean hissed aware now of the early hour and of the other kids still sleeping soundly. “Are you with us. Or them”

“Like, gangs you mean?”

“No” Dean hesitated to explain, not everyone was ready for the truth, he’d made this mistake before and freaked some otherwise good friends out… and this kid spoke funny.

”Do you not get cramped under there?” The boy asked instead, “It looks horrible” he said twisting his head as if to examine the space in more detail “When I first arrived here, I could hear you scratching around under there. I thought you were a giant rat or something”

“You didn’t arrive” Dean said correcting him “They dragged you in, I saw you fighting them and now, now you’re trapped, trapped like everyone else is in here” 

“Trapped” the new kid said tasting the word as if it were new to his vocabulary. “Trapped?” he said again eyeing the open dorm door and many windows lining the wall behind Dean’s bed.

“It’s not what it seems” Dean explained “Remember when you tried to run? How they were already waiting for you? Well they’re always waiting, always” 

“Nothing is absolute” The kid whispered (haughtily, Dean thought)

“Listen!” Dean said sternly, angered enough to come out of his bunker to confront the boy directly on the seriousness of the matter “We are in danger here, sever danger!” He explained but now he was close enough to see the other kid clearly and he was wearing the horrible t-shirt, the one from lost property which no one touches, even with a stick and a paper bracelet from Alistair’s office.

 

“Well look who it is” Brady yawned waking up from his bed at the noise “That freak Winchester! Thought you’d left freak! Thought they’d tossed you in a padded cell somewhere”

Dean gripped his fingers into fists tight enough to make his nails bite. Brady’s methods of surviving this place were different from his own (he suspected he’d made a deal, perhaps even been willingly turned) and now he’d been made a sort of prefect.

“Is he telling you all about those demons of his?” Brady sneered “And this apocalypse he has to avert?”

“You wait!” Dean started but Brady was louder

“You just concentrate on stopping the white coats when they come, can’t dodge them forever”

“Dodge this!” Dean started but there was a scrape from outside and now the dorm door was opening

“Time to run and hide” Brady crowed as Sonny came in.

“Thought I heard voices” Sonny said announcing himself “Well if your all awake anyway we’d best be getting on with the day. Come on up and at emp’ kids, I need the room”

Dean had already darted back into his bunker, again miraculously unnoticed, while Sonny took a seat on the new kid’s bed. “Stay here a moment longer” He said while everyone else grabbed their wash kits and cleared the room “We need to talk”  
“Listen” Sonny said his voice dropping to a lower, sadder tone “Some new information has come to light, about what happened”  
A long pause followed. A pause so long Dean wondered if the two of them had left.

“What do you remember?” Sonny finally asked, his voice soft, softer than Dean had ever heard a voice to be “About your family? The boat?” Sonny urged, hesitantly… “And, the um, the accident?”

 

This time the silence was longer and Dean, who was barely breathing through his fingers could hear the click of a swallow through too thick a throat. Sonny shifted making the cot springs protest.   
A breath was drawn

“I don’t know what your referring to” the new kid spoke in that strange monotone way of his.

A deep sigh and the scratch of a calloused hand rubbing repeatedly over denim suggested Sonny found the response to be as much out of sorts as Dean had.

“What about the night the police found you? Can you remember what it was that you were doing?”

When it was clear that no answer was coming Sonny heaved a long steady sigh of defeat “I think you’d best to meet our councillor, She’ll know how to explain this a whole lot better” Sonny said getting up “Come, please” He said waiting for the kid to rise

“No” The new boy said remaining seated in his bed “I’d rather not, if you don’t mind” 

The kid was about to find out however that he didn’t actually have a choice anymore, Dean pitied him…

“I’m afraid this isn’t a request” Sonny said more firmly “You need to hear this, to understand”

“I think I’d rather just go home now, if you don’t mind”

“You can’t do that”

And Dean slowly mouthed the words ‘Because you’re trapped’ 

Sonny’s stance shifted and a firm clap of a hand landing firmly on a shoulder “Come now, I know she’s eager to meet you” 

“Um, I…”

Dean peeked, hoping to see the kid resist… hoping to see him use that telekinesis thing or his strength again or something… but what he saw was the boy glancing nervously back at him, like he wanted help? before remembering his pride and bravely lifting his chin and allowing himself to be led away.

“That’s it” Sonny spoke, still guiding the boy out “Right this way”

Dean pulled himself up, not at all sure what it was he was going to do against a demon of Sonny’s calibre, but it was already too late and the door was closing as they left… it had been a fleeting moment, perhaps he’d even been mistaken and it wasn’t as if they were friends… But Dean was a hunter… and that kid had stolen Dean’s car not long ago….   
Remembering his anger Dean went right back to where his car waited to continue with his inspection. It didn’t calm him like it usually did. Didn’t put to rest the butterflies that persisted in bothering him.   
He didn’t understand what had just happened so continued to busy himself with light maintenance, just general stuff till the cleaners came and went and the sunbeams diminished along their faded paths across the bare floor boards...  
Till his food and water ration had been consumed and the rattle of the dinner clamour had subsided outside…

The new kid returned, smaller, paler somehow. He slipped quietly in and curled himself back up in his bed as if all those hours in between hadn’t happened…

Dean wanted to ask, but didn’t; so they shared the silence of the empty room together for the remainder of the evening.  
The evening movie came to an end and Dean could hear Meg instructing everyone to go silently and quickly bed and specially to leave that new kid alone… Brady made sure her instructions were followed to the word.  
It seemed cruel.   
Sure, he hadn’t said a thing either but he didn’t know what to say.  
The tension in the dorm that night was palpable.   
Then, just as Dean had nodded off…  
He woke with a start to the sound of something rattling violently in the darkness. 

The new kid was trying with all his bodily might to force open a window.

“Shh!” Dean scolded as the noise was already deafening “Shhhhh!” 

The boy continued, frantically.

“There’s no way out” Dean warned “They’ve made sure of it! You’ll just get their attention doing that and, and…” but Dean had started to pull himself out, could now see the boy’s haunted wet eyes.

“They lied to me!” he sobbed, his face messy with grief. He looked ten years younger, too tall now for his fragile age… “Told me my family were dead! Said I had to stay here now!”

“They lie” Dean spoke in a voice brimming confidence as if he was soothing little Sammy “About everything”

The boy stopped working the wooden frame and composed himself, pulling straight that rotten t and wiping his nose across a bare arm “I can’t stay here; this place” He paused, eyes racing round the dorm with such hate “it’s crushing me!”

It was a strange choice of words, the dorm room which they were in was huge and the rest of the complex (If you went outside and used it which Dean hardly ever did) was vast… but the boy was calming down now, physically at least, and Dean needed him to stay that way.  
“Don’t worry” He said, still speaking as calmly “My dad is coming! and he’ll get us out, all of us”

“He is?” The boy asked, hope rising instantly, simple and childlike in his voice “When? Now, tomorrow? Soon?”

Dean’s jaw worked uselessly, the answer nowhere to be found. His eyes dropped even before the next words bit

“How long have you been here?” The boy asked sharply stepping in close, too close, right up into Dean’s face “Just how long have you been waiting?”

Dean stepped back away from the red-hot pain in the boy’s eyes, afraid it might be infectious... Time had taken on a whole new meaning while he’d been here, even this moment was stretching its self all out.

“I can’t wait that long” the boy said pushing past before Dean could fall over the bed complete with occupant he’d been backing himself into.

“Hey!” the sleeping boy, Isaiah Merchant whose family really were dead, only not by him like everyone believed (like the kids here still believed) but by someone else, (possibly demons) it was all over the news “Fuck off, some of us are sleeping here you stupid freaks!”

‘you freaks’ In just two words Dean felt suddenly bound to this strange new boy. 

“I’ve got to get out of here!” The new boy said shoving Dean aside, eyes getting wilder with panic as more kids began to grumble and wake “I need out now!” he said scratching at his lost property t shirt as if it now burned his skin. He broke out into a sudden sprint, banging into beds and even the wall clumsily in his escape.

“No, not…” Dean watched him flee out and down the hall once again, heard the predictable commotion and struggle outside.  
Heard all the muttered cusses and grumbles behind him and all around. 

 

“They should chuck him back in the water where they found him”   
“He was on a roof actually, he’s a jumper”   
“Then they should take him back there and finish the job, fucking freak!”   
“Ship him back to where ever he came from at least, they probably all like that there”   
”Hey, at least Dean’s not so lonely now Huh, got someone as crazy as he is to hang with!”

 

Dean flinched at hearing his own name in the banter, he’d left himself exposed for far too long… He crawled back to where his car faithfully awaited him. Performed the necessary maintenance checks warranted for such a long journey as he was about to take and let the soft rumble of tires over smooth tarmac take him. 

 

 

All the following day and the next the new boys bed stayed empty. 

Dean watched the vacant area vigilantly. Already feeling the loss of even that little bit of unity. Already feeling the abandonment hoping in new people brings.

Still, he had his car, his routines to follow… time rolled on.


End file.
